Its been a very satisfying opening week of the season, with the hard fought (and possibly undeserved!) late winner against West Ham last Sunday, followed by an almost as satisfying Carling Cup at Oxford United on Wednesday.
West Ham United 0 Cardiff City 1
I sat down in front of the TV last Sunday with some trepidation - Would our new team work? Could we score goals? Could we defend well against probably the best team of the division and their Premier League stars? Well, the answer to those questions was yes, probably and yes again!
Only 2 of the starting eleven played in the final playoff game against Reading in May, (McNaughton and Whittingham), so it was very much my first chance to check on the team progress. Defensively, we looked sound - Marshall in goal seemed to work particularly well with the whole defence, and both Hudson and Gerrard in the centre of the defence made some crucial tackles. I'm not sure of the pace of those 2 against some nippier strikers, but there won't be many better combinations in the Championship this year. The midfield also seemed to work well, although lacking a little width and pace outside at times. Whittingham was outstanding, and continues to improve as a player.
Its in! Kenny Miller scores the winner in the 91st minute!
However, up front there are still some question marks for me. Although Earnshaw made a nuisance of himself and Kenny Miller scored an opportunist winner, the 2 of them are too similar players in my opinion to play together on a regular basis - I think we need a player with more of an aerial threat to play with one or the other of them, and then bring the other off the bench for the last 20-25 minutes with pace when defences start to tire.
But lets not be too pedantic - it was a good performance last Sunday. We probably only deserved a draw at best, but the signs were encouraging of the overall team performance and the win was a bonus. Over the course of a season these things have a habit of evening themselves out, and I've no doubt there will be other occasions when teams score late goals against us to deny us of points.
Oxford United 1 Cardiff 3 (after extra time)
I'm not a big fan of the Carling Cup - it's one cup competition too far in my opinion. However, for once this match came in useful as a way of giving the rest of the squad players the chance to see some competitive match action. With 8 squad players away on international duty, it was a chance for some of the youngsters and fringe players to shine - it was particularly good to see Alex Evans and Ibrahim Farrah start.
Whitts at Oxford
An encouraging performance from a half strength team who showed their superior fitness to win in extra time, with goals from Peter Whittingham and Nat Jarvis.
Another Sunday.
This afternoon we have the first home game of the season to our only local rivals, Bristol City (I don't mention the "S" word on here!). Its not until the middle of September that we have a home league game at the traditional time of 3.00pm a on a Saturday! We have had good wins over the Wurzles at Cardiff during the last few seasons, even last year when we were 2-0 down after 4 minutes! Lets hope it continues today!
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